Day 9, Wednesday May 18, 2016
Alysha Knight

Overview:

• Gulpener Brewery
• Church of Charlemagne

 Our first morning in this StayOkay Hostel was a nice one because we got to enjoy the luxury of air conditioning for the first night since the start of the trip. We each chose our own breakfast, but for some reason it still seemed to revolve around the bread, butter, and cheese. Some of us added cucumber slices for variety. Our first stop is the is the one I've been looking forward to the most: the Gulpener Brewery! After a small detour for pie and coffee, eventually, we met up with our excellent tour guide, Yves, who took the time to show us just about every aspect of the brewery's founding, philosophy, and the entire brewing process. The tour began with free and delicious pie and beverages, and a quick overview of the company's history. Established in 1825, Gulpener Brewery was built around the resources available within Gulpener, Netherlands. Originally, the the beer was produced with the water from the town river. Even though they no longer use that water, they still rely on local farms for the ingredients in their completely organic beer. Yves' main goal was to bring across the point that since they relied on nature so much to make their product that they must do everything they can to give back to and provide resources to sustain the environment. We were given the opportunity to tour almost every aspect of their brewing process from the  the mixing of the ingredients to the final resting stage. Personally, I learned a few interesting things during our tour on the brewery floor. In particular, the color of a beer is determined by how the barley is dried. The higher the temperature, the darker the barley, and thus the beer. There are so many details that determine what the beer looks and tastes like. For example, during the fermentation process, whether a beer is an ale or lager is determined by the temperature at which it is cooled down. Just a slight difference in temperature may give the beer a fruity or flowery smell (ale) or a hoppy mixed with honey smell (lager). After this tour, we were shown a short presentation with all 16 of the brewery's flavors. We then got the chance to taste 3 beers and guess which flavors they were. None of us got all of them right, but Trevor and Hans both got 2 out of 3 correct, so they won a certificate. Just before leaving, Yves offered us all the chance to enjoy any of the 16 flavors.

Our next stop was more historical. We drove only 30 minutes to Aachen, Germany, which is also known as the City of Charlemagne. This is because it is the home of the Church of Charlemagne. Our new tour guide, Kristophe, was a very knowledgeable graduate student of ancient history. During our tour, he took the time to explain and show us even the smallest of details within and around the church. Starting off, the Church of Charlemagne began construction of the original building in 800 AD.  The church's different building were built and added over time, with the original building being built around 800 AD and young was built about 400 years ago. Perhaps the most interesting story (at least for me) was that during this time, kings did not typically stay in one town, so Charlemagne simply gave the town the money to build the church and left for a while. Apparently, the townspeople decided to slack off, so when Charlemagne sent word that he was coming back, they were nowhere near done. So they all were panicking, but, according to legend, the devil offered them a deal. He offered to complete the construction in one night if he could have the soul of the first person who entered the church. The townspeople all knew that usually this person would be the bishop, so instead they captured a wolf and sent it through the door first. When the devil realized that they had tricked him, he became so angry and he kicked and punched the door so hard that it left a crack and a dent, respectively. We learned plenty of actual historical facts about the church, too, but they weren't as fun for me. From here, we were taken through the main and public areas of the church, with our tour guide to explain even the smallest of details about the stone, the art, and the people who all made this magnificent building into reality. The tour finally ended in an area where we were surrounded by beautiful glass windows. Here we saw the shrines of Charlemagne and Mother Mary.  Mother Mary's artifacts are put on  public display every 7 years. Apparently, Charlemagne is an unrecognized saint of the Catholic Church. His successor sought to make Charlemagne a saint in order to further his own political needs. The Pope at the time seemed to recognize this and denied Charlemagne sainthood. The new king did not like this at all so he elected his own pope (referred to as an anti-pope) and had Charlemagne recognized as a saint. Even now, the Catholic church refuses to recognize Charlemagne as a saint because, although he did contribute a great deal to religious history, he was well known for being cruel, had 5 wives, and has numerous known (and probably unknown) illegitimate children. I felt that this was an interesting ending to the tour.

Another hour on the bus and we were back in the Maastricht, Netherlands. Everyone explored the town in groups for their dinner and prepared for tomorrow's adventure.